David Troy
Videos by OutKick
Padres vs. Blue Jays, 7:07 ET
Yesterday, I took a bet with my heart more than my head. I mentioned a few times in the article that I don’t often bet on a pitcher making his debut. I did it yesterday and a lot of it was because I knew the kid that was coming up. There were other reasons too, of course, but that was at least a portion of the reason I picked the game. Unfortunately, he was knocked around and the Pirates did nothing offensively to help him out. I won’t make the same mistake today as we shift to a game between the Padres and Blue Jays.
The Padres came out of the All-Star Break with a nice win over the Phillies. Then they promptly lost the next three games before having an off day yesterday. Unfortunately, this seems to be the biggest issue with the Padres this season. Over the year, the team hasn’t hit well at opportune times, and it doesn’t make a ton of sense as they have some of the best hitters in the game in their lineup. Their pitching has been fine and they get another good one going tonight – Joe Musgrove. This season has been pretty solid for Musgrove. He comes into the season with a 3.29 ERA and has been solid both at home and on the road this year. No one on the Blue Jays roster has had a ton of experience against Musgrove, but overall they are hitting .240 against him. Musgrove has pitched rather well lately, tossing six consecutive quality starts. He hasn’t allowed more than three earned runs in a game since May 20th either.
The Blue Jays are looking quite dominant this year as they continue to push their way in the AL East standings. It has to be encouraging that they haven’t had a huge winning streak and are sitting within striking distance of the top spot in their division. The hitting for the team has been consistent which is what you would expect, but the surprising success has come from the pitching staff that is boasting a 3.81 ERA as a squad. One guy that I expected to be part of that success was Alek Manoah, but he really struggled this season, at one point even being sent down to the minors. He has made just one start since that demotion and it was a solid one. He faced the Tigers and allowed just one earned run over six innings. So, the question has to be: is Manoah back to the solid starter he was last year, or was it just one good game. He had other solid starts this season – one against the Royals and one against the Yankees. I wouldn’t say he was very good at home this season so far, with an 8.68 home ERA.
I don’t know that Manoah figured everything out here and even with as poor as the Padres hit, they should be able to tag Manoah for a few runs. The bigger story here though is that the Padres have the better pitcher in the game with Musgrove. I’m taking the Padres, but I’ll stick with the first five innings as the Padres bullpen has hurt me in the past.
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